Garden Notes - Aspen to Blackthorn

Aspen
Populus tremula

Indigenous in British Isles. Often grows as shrubby tree in moist, light soil in hedgerows and copses; frequently planted in gardens and pleasure grounds; found at high altitudes in Scotland. Height when fully grown 50-80 feet. Toot branches almost horizontal, sending up suckers. Branches: tend to hang. Leaves: silky beneath when young, 2 in. to 3 in. across when mature, under side lighter in color; broadly egg-shaped, with toothed margins, constantly fluttering on their long thin leaf-stalks. Stamen-bearing and Pistil-bearing flowers in downy catkins, borne on different trees; usually appear before the leaves.

White Beam
Pyrus Aria

Occurs locally, especially on chalk soils, on borders of woods; usually as a bush-like tree, but occasionally attains to a height of 40 feet. Bark: smooth when young, dotted in transverse lines. Branches: usually tend upwards. Twigs: stout, brown to gray. Leaves: vary in shape, usually broadly oval, edges coarsely toothed or lobed, under side downy and white. Glowers appear in May or June, white, about ½ in. in diameter, arranged in loose flat-topped clusters. Fruit: scarlet, dotted with brown, nearly round, ½ in. diameter; sometimes known as Chess-apples. Sharp and rough at first, but edible when matured.

Beech
Fagus sylvatica

When well grown in the open is a stately, luxuriantly leaved tree about 100 feet high, with branches reaching almost to the ground; in woods, trunk often grows 60 feet before branching. Curving roots lie near surface, and foliage extremely dense, hence few plants can grow beneath it. Bark: thin and smooth, gray-green. Leaves: oval, glossy and crisp, reddish-golden in autumn. Stamen-bearing flowers in small clusters hanging by long, slender stalks. Fruit: three cornered, polished brown nuts or "mast," enclosed in a hard bristly capsule which often remains on the tree for a long time.

Silver Birch
Betula alba

The most graceful, most hardy, and most widely distributed of our trees; when full grown reaches 50 to 80 feet, with a girth of 2 to 3 feet. Bark: smooth, silvery-white, scaling off in horizontal strips. Branches: slender, coppery-brown, often drooping. Leaves: pointed oval in shape, glossy, edges doubly toothed, lightly fluttering on long slender stalks. In April the Stamen-bearing flowers (formed during preceding summer) ripen, and hang in reddish-brown catkins, 1 in. or 1 ½ in. long; Pistil-bearing flowers in shorter, more erect spikes. As fruit catkins ripen the tiny winged nuts fall away from the axis.

Blackthorn or Sloe
Prunus communis; Subspecies Prunus spinosa

Sometimes attains dimensions of a small tree, but usually found as a matted bush or thicket in the hedgerow. Many branches, twisted and interlaced; twigs develop into stout thorns, which bear leaves and flowers. Bark: blackish (hence the name Blackthorn). Leaves: oval, pointed at base and tip, ¾ in. to 1 ½ in. in length, edges finely toothed. Flowers: grow singly on short stalks, five petals, pure white; appear in March or April, before leaves. Fruit erect, spherical, about ½ in. in diameter, dull-green at first, gradually turning black, with delicate purple bloom.